Felicity Poulsen

PhD Candidate

Project title

Improving the operational utility of biogeographical ancestry prediction for forensic investigations

Supervisory Team

Principal Supervisor: Distinguished Professor Lyn Griffiths
Associate Supervisor: Associate Professor Larisa Haupt
External Supervisors: Dr Runa Daniel, Dr Catherine Hitchcock

Project description

The project represents a collaboration between NSW Health Pathology Forensic & Analytical Science Service, Victoria Police Forensic Services Department and QUT Centre for Genomics and Personalised Health. As part of this collaborative project, Felicity is investigating the use of biogeographical ancestry (BGA) prediction in forensic investigations and its capacity to provide additional information about the donor of biological evidence. A primary aim of the project is to investigate potential sources of error within BGA prediction workflows and develop a robust methodology for evaluating and comparing the performance of BGA analysis methods. It is anticipated that the findings will help to inform improvements to current methods, with the aim to provide more accurate, reliable and actionable BGA predictions for casework.

Short Biography

Felicity is a Research & Development Scientist within the Forensic DNA Unit at the NSW Health Pathology Forensic & Analytical Science Service (FASS) and a part-time PhD candidate at the Genomics Research Centre within the Centre for Genomics and Personalised Health. Felicity’s research has focused on emerging DNA analysis technologies and their application to forensic investigations. Felicity’s current work relates to the use of biogeographical ancestry prediction to provide intelligence to investigators in criminal and coronial casework. This continues on from her Honours work on the development of a Y-haplogroup database to assist with ancestry prediction for historical military remains, a project sponsored by the Australian Defence Force.

Education

2015     Bachelor of Forensic Science (Forensic Molecular Biology) with Class I Honours from Griffith University

2014     Bachelor of Criminology and Criminal Justice from Griffith University